PITMAN — A crop once raised on Pitman farmland in the early 19th century — fiber hemp — returned to the picturesque valley this year courtesy of seeds from France and the curiosity of Brothers Johannes and Christian Zinzendorf.

The brothers operate The Hermitage, a Harmonist spiritual center in Eldred Township, which became the first farm in the Tri-Valley area to grow a state-approved test plot of fiber hemp.

“We’ve been collecting hemp tools for more than 30 years, but never had hemp to process. We thought it was a great opportunity for us and it was time to try something new,” Johannes said.

They found estate documents from their property that showed there were both hemp and flax being produced there years ago. The Zinzendorfs have been producing flax for years.

Hemp was a course fiber that was used to make tough cloth and tow ropes which could pull vessels through canals, like those in Landingville along the Schuylkill River, Johannes said.

Female plants

After hearing a National Public Radio broadcast with Erica McBride Stark, executive director of the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council, at the State Farm Show in 2018, Johannes said it sparked their interest in trying to grow the crop. The brothers visited an existing fiber hemp grower in the Oley Valley last year.

Seed for the 50-by-100-foot plot came from France and was provided by the PHIC. The Zinzendorfs’ hemp plot is under PHIC auspices.

McBride Stark worked with the state Department of Agriculture to obtain the necessary permit, according to Johannes. She and her husband, noted hemp researcher Les Stark, helped the brothers plant the plot using traditional hand broadcasting of the seed in early June on ground the Zinzendorfs had fertilized. Other growers use a seed drill machine for planting in rows, instead of the planting by hand method.

The state regulates growth of hemp seed, Johannes explained. There are male and female hemp plants, but the brothers are only raising female plants.

As of Friday, many of the plants were approaching 10 to 12 feet tall and are soon ready to harvest. The quickly growing plants, growing closely together, choke out weeds. The closeness of the stalks also prevents the plants from sending outside branches and keeps the stalks growing straight and tall.

There are other varieties of industrial hemp for different commercial purposes, including those that produce seed for CBD oil.

Ret or rot

“This year is an experiment so we can learn the best growing conditions for fiber hemp and how to process it to make hemp cloth,” Christian said.

The brothers are learning how to grow fiber hemp this season and, equally important, how to ret, or rot, the plant stalks so the spinnable fibers attached to the outside of the pithy stalks can be separated and then spun and woven. The brothers will not be raising fiber hemp on a commercial basis or with modern equipment, but will use traditional, hand-operated tools as was done on early German farms in the area.

They’ll compare two retting methods: pond retting, in which the stalks are fully submerged, as they are currently doing with their flax crop, and ground retting, in which the stalks are laid on the ground for a longer period.

Christian demonstrated the hand harvesting method of cutting the stalks at a 45 degree angle with a hemp knife. Hemp, which is also known as a bast fiber, will bend if it’s cut at a straight angle, he said.

Submerging the hemp in the pond water helps to break down the fiber. There’s pectin within the plant, and the pond bacteria helps to eat away at the pectin, making the fiber more accessible for separating.

The process can take two weeks for the hemp stalks to stand in shocks, which look similar to tripods. The stalks are then submerged in water for about four days. Conversely, the ground drying method can take a few months, and the stalks, which are laying flat on the ground, must be turned over to avoid rotting.

A hemp comb is used to separate the fibers into usable strands that can be woven or made into rope.

“Area farmers should consider adding industrial hemp as one of their crops,” Johannes said.

Crop applications

State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding in January announced the state had submitted its plan for industrial hemp to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was going to reopen the 2019 program to include applications for commercial growing operations.

Industrial hemp and marijuana are different varieties of the same species of plant.

“Unlike marijuana, industrial hemp is grown mainly for fiber and seed, and must maintain a much lower concentration of the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, below the 0.3 percent legal threshold,” a Department of Agriculture release states.

Educators at the Penn State Extension office in Pottsville reported in January there were a few county farmers interested in producing commercial hemp, but at that time there were no other county farmers raising it.

Researchers used an undisclosed location in Schuylkill County in the spring of 2017 to study the viability of industrial hemp production in the state.

Brite Lite Organics, of Baltimore, Maryland, was to oversee the management of the hemp crop production and AgriLogic PA LLC, Philadelphia, was slated to grow it.

The Pitman test plot can be viewed at the eastern end of the Hermitage property at 75 Grove Road. Farmers interested in the commercial production of fiber and seed hemp can find out more at the council’s website, www.pahic.org, or by calling McBride Stark at 610-468-2311. She can explain the state requirements to obtain a grower’s permit. The Hermitage can be reached at 570-492-4832.

Contact the writer: ; 570-628-6007

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.